The New Stuff

Is too much ever enough, or just too much?

Blogging is a game of putting yourself out there, sharing your views with the world.

Then came Twitter. As much as I was a skeptic at first, Twitter really has become the next level in the evolution of online presence. It’s a slightly wild, 140 character extension of self, random thoughts, location and links.

And yet less that 2 months after the rise of Twitter, we see the Webcam technology of Web 1.0 meet the narcissism of Web 2.0, an always on stream of activity, and often lack thereof. If justin.tv bought the world of web cams to Web 2.0, ustream could become the poster child of a new movement of 20 somethings who are too old or too uncaring to remember the likes of Jenicam.

Is too much ever enough, or just too much?

Is the narcissystem the way of the future?

The poster kids of Web 2.0, Chris Pirillo and Robert Scoble have lead the way. Pirillo’s live streams are actually fairly interesting, Scoble’s streams of him in a car aren’t really my thing. Interestingly though in a historical sense is that the tech of the Truman Show is now available to the masses, at least those with generous bandwidth plans, particularly with their mobile (cell) providers.

Matthew Ingram has some good points, but I’m not sure he looks deeply enough at the overflow of information this all leads to. I’ve enjoyed watching some of Pirillo’s live stuff, but imagine if 20 other interesting people were doing the same thing? How then could I manage to watch them all? Imagine that in 3-6 months time ustream is the new YouTube, that thousands, tens of thousands are streaming parts, sometimes all of their day. What then?

I’ve always argued the text is the ultimate form of communication, because it allows dissemination to many easily and in a more manageable form. I love the idea of Podcasting, but I’ know that it’s far more limited than text because it takes far longer to consume. Always on video is harder again. Where as I can consume multiple podcasts, and thousands of blogs, it’s hard to consume more than a handful of always on streams, and certainly more so in terms of time, when Pirillo or Justin are at their best, I’m often asleep (12 hours ahead of US EST at the moment).

Question though is would I give it a try? Watch this space. The logistics are difficult, particularly mobile, given that always on data (via 3G) in Australia is expensive, but the narcissist in me is certainly tempted. Perhaps I can become another number in the too much is never enough equation.

2 Comments

As an investor in Ustream, “Imagine that in 3-6 months time ustream is the new YouTube, that thousands” is music to my ears!

The “wheat from chaff” issue is an old and well-pedigreed one. Think back to previous waves like blogging, or even the original Web, when people (mainly mainstream media critics) decried the proliferation of boring, self-centered content. Somehow, we managed to make sense of those. I predict that some kind of real-time Digg will eventually emerge to send real-time alerts whenever something worth watching is on. Or perhaps the equivalent of real-time RSS will arise. I’ve certainly passed both of those ideas on to Team Ustream.

Vince WilliamsApril 16, 2007

I suspect that people who spend x number of hours per day passively consuming this sort of input are subtly re-wiring their brains.

Science is discovering that the adult human brain is more plastic than previously thought.

People who watch too much TV tend to be fat and stupid, so it will be interesting to see just how insipid a human being can become.